Just a year earlier, the window was shuttered and his calender mill in this small port town on the Island of Cape Breton was shut down. Then a new ownership group entered the picture, determined to restart the plant with new equipment that would increase throughput and improve profitability. As a Woodlands Supervisor within the mill now operated by Port Hawkesbury Paper LP, Dennis has been in the thick of the renewal effort.

“When the new owners took over the mill, we put in a new wood room…” Boulet explains. “A debarker, wood chipper and all the attachments. In doing so, our deck infeed was raised significantly, 18 ft. at the low end, up to 26 ft. at the high end. Then we were kind of hand-cuffed by the machines we had in the yard at the time – Paralift loaders and two material handlers. Our loaders didn’t have the height, and the material handlers didn’t have the trailer pulling capacity.”

A picker and a puller

Boulet looked into other machines available on the market and found himself meeting with a group from Strongco Corp., who represent SENNEBOGEN in Canada’s Atlantic region. Boulet had worked previously with Strongco, and he welcomed a call from Territory Manager, Terry Pickard. Pickard arranged an introduction to SENNEBOGEN’s purpose-built log handler, the 830 M-T, for the Port Hawkesbury team.

Boulet recalls: “They put on quite a presentation that showed us the machine pulling loaded trailers up the hill. Then they took us up to another mill that had an 18 ft. deck where we met the operator. Our mechanic went all over the machine and some of our operators got in and did some work on it. Once the operators and mechanics saw what the machine could do, that pretty much told us that this was the machine that could do the job. So we purchased the 830 M-T because it’s a material handler as well as a trailer puller.”

The 830 M-T is equipped to complete the entire duty cycle from the stockpile to the infeed deck without requiring other machines to feed it or pull its loads.

Engineered for yard duty

Once the 830 M-T went into service, operators found that it provided additional advantages over its basic requirements for picking and pulling.

With its cab elevating to about a 20 ft. height, the extra height for the operator to be able to look down at the deck makes the job that much easier. The mill’s machine operators tell him the extra 2 ft. height difference means a lot, plus the cab’s joystick steering controls instead of a steering wheel allows them more room in the cab.

The unique drive system on the 830 M-T, featuring a dual transmission is also well-suited to Boulet’s yard. SENNEBOGEN designed the system to ensure plenty of traction for pulling loads through sticky mud and uphills, without overstressing the power train.

“There’s no shortage of power, by any means!” Boulet reports. “Our upper yard is not paved and it has a 40 ft. elevation change from the lower yard. With the other machines, with just one transmission, we would have to be careful coming down to the lower yard, because a full load on our large trailers would be pushing the machine.”

Meeting more needs

The versatility of the machine is also paying off. “We do a lot of reclaiming here,” says Boulet. “We get wood coming in throughout the year but, at certain times, we need to cycle the wood around that’s in the yard. We have to clear the wood right down to the deck, but because we fill certain blocks with some large volume, our existing machines could do it but were limited.”

“Our wood specs also changed: from 8 ft. cut-to-length to random. Now we take logs anywhere from 6 ft. to 24 ft. So, for us to have a machine that could handle the volume, the weight and the length, we had to get a stronger machine.”

The log handler is also put to work unloading trucks with CTL (cut-to-length) loads from private suppliers, and for loading 8 ft. and 10 ft. lengths that the mill ships to nearby stud mills.

As a purpose-built log handling machine, the 830 M T has the lifting capacity, the reach and the speed to load and stack efficiently.

On target for prosperity

The real goal in purchasing the 830 M-T was to feed more wood through the mill. According to Boulet, his operators and technicians made the right choice.

“Our wood room is designed to run on a 12-hour shift at about 2 ½ ft. per minute. We’re producing 1700 tons of chips per day, so it’s running fairly fast. In order for us to get enough wood to the deck in the shortest amount of time, we needed a trailer puller so the log handler always has a good amount to feed right at hand. Trucks come direct to the deck, too, but if we don’t have another truck right there, the 830 M-T can load the deck from its trailer.”

“Our wood room is still getting up & running, but the 830 M-T can handle the pace, hands down.”

MACHINE SPECIFICATIONS AT A GLANCE

Model: 830 M-T

Undercarriage: Rubber Tired

Reach: 46 ft.

Attachment Type and Size: 225 Log Grapple

Type of Operator’s Cab: MaXCab with hydraulic elevating cab system.

OPERATIONS AT A GLANCE

Customer: Port Hawkesbury Paper

Dealer and Location: Strongco – Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Start Up Year: 2013

Type of Material Handled: Logs 8 ft. to 24 ft.

Loading: Infeed deck 23 ft. at the high end feeding a debarker.

About SENNEBOGEN

SENNEBOGEN has been a leading name in the global material handling industry for 65 years. Based in Stanley, North Carolina, within the greater Charlotte region, SENNEBOGEN LLC offers a complete range of purpose-built machines to suit virtually any material handling application. Established in America in the year 2000, SENNEBOGEN LLC has quickly become a leading provider of specialized equipment solutions for recycling and scrap metal yards, demolition, barge and port operations, log-handling, transfer stations and waste facilities from coast to coast. A growing network of distributors supports SENNEBOGEN LLC sales and service across the Americas, ensuring the highest standard of professional machine support and parts availability.

For more information on the full line of SENNEBOGEN green line material handlers, contact: